About Us

InfraNEDs emerged in 2023, volunteer-led, responding to a growing need to bring informed diversity to Real Asset Boards.

The co-founders, Dr. Patricia Rodrigues Jenner and Julia Gregory are well-known and business-savvy trailblazers and thought leaders in the Real Assets community. Together they launched the InfraNEDs initiative in the form of a circle of like-minded women NEDs to debate the issues of the day in the sector and serve as a sounding board for each other’s ideas.

Within a few months of the launch in 2023, InfraNEDs grew organically to more than 100 experienced leaders in real assets and InfraNEDs gained tremendous traction. It became obvious that many highly accomplished women in the sector aspire to build a focused and mutually supportive community where they can address the sector’s challenges through dialogue, identifying current trends, and generating value with collaborative recommendations and advocacy.

InfraNEDs have expertise in operation, regulation, policy, construction management, project management, stakeholder management, valuation, debt financing, equity investment, and private and listed fund and company management, across both the public and private sectors. Sector focus makes the InfraNEDs network very complementary to other business networks.

InfraNEDs seeks to actively collaborate with other networks that share the agenda of improving informed diversity and thus the quality of decision-making and governance in the boardroom. For example, both co-founders have long been UK Women on Boards members. Research by Women on Boards (“Hidden Talent” 2023) showed that just 2.3% of FTSE500 companies’ board members have held positions and expertise outside of CEO, CFO, or Company Secretarial functions.

Meet our Founders

Dr. Patricia Rodrigues Jenner

Patricia is an experienced board Non-Executive Director and Committee Chair, a purposeful leader with over two decades of institutional investment and governance experience across real assets, energy transition, and private equity, structuring $10Bn+ transactions including at Macquarie and Townsend (now Aon).

Well-known as an accomplished networker and in-demand trusted thought partner, she has a breadth of leadership and sustainability experience, including as co-founder of the UK Government’s Green Investment Bank. Patricia currently serves on the Boards of Legal and General Assurance Society Ltd and Aquila European Renewables PLC. In addition, she is an Independent Investment Committee Member at UK pension plans’ infrastructure investing platform GLIL and Old Mutual’s African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4.

Patricia is a Fellow of Chapter Zero UK, 2023 “NED to watch” finalist, Leading Women of Influence in Private Markets, and mentor to Nordic VC Katapult Ocean CEOs in deep clean tech. Patricia began her career in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley. She holds an Engineering Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

Julia Gregory

Julia is a Non-Executive and Senior Independent Director, Chair, and Trustee with almost three decades of fostering unprecedented growth for private, public, and charitable organizations through strategic leadership and transformational change. She spent her executive career working with global companies such as Ferrovial and GIP, as well as driving forward major Government Projects such as the new Garden City.

Julia is known for striking the right balance between challenge and support, facilitating optimal decision-making, and enabling businesses to achieve organisational and cultural change, overcome regulatory obstacles, enhance financial stability, and mitigate critical risks in a range of real estate and infrastructure companies’ boards. By appreciating the bigger picture and different points of view, she brings a fresh, holistic viewpoint to investment, infrastructure, utilities and renewables, risk management, compliance and governance frameworks, ESG, D&I, and stakeholder engagement, as well as partnership creation, development, and investment.

In 2022, Julia was awarded a lifetime achievement award for Women in Business.

& the InfraNEDs Steering Group

Katrina Shenton

Katrina is an independent consultant and board director passionate about fighting climate change. Katrina has a substantial career in renewable energy and responsible investment, including 10 years at Octopus.

Portfolio: NEST Pensions Scheme Investment Committee, CCLA COIF charity funds, Applerigg Ltd.

Laurence Monnier

Laurence is a Board and Investment Committee member with deep Real Assets and Infrastructure expertise with a track record of leading business growth, including at Aviva and Fitch. Laurence is a renowned thought leader with risk management expertise and the ability to incorporate financial governance in investments.

Portfolio: Investment Committees Temporis Capital, ImpactA Global, Green Finance Fund, senior advisor Gira Strategic Finance, Advisory Board EDHEC Infrastructure

Emma Fitzgerald

Emma is a global NED with expertise in energy and water, operating effectively in high-risk and ambiguous environments in developed and developing markets. Emma demonstrates thought leadership and has a track record of creating value by building great teams, commercialising technology, and catalysing systemic transformational change with a focus on sustainable outcomes. Emma’s background is as Director of Operations for Severn Trent, CEO of National Grid Gas Distribution, and CEO of Puma Energy.

Portfolio: Newmont Corporation, Seplat Energy, UPM Kymmene. Co-chair of WEF Global Futures Council for Energy Transition. Emma is a mentor of senior executives and climate start-ups with Creative Destruction Lab.

Dr. Shefaly Yogendra

Shefaly is an experienced FTSE 250 NED and specialist in risk and decision-making with a career working in the technology industry, her last appointment being as COO in an explainable AI company. Before the current portfolio, Shefaly was independent Governor of London Metropolitan University where she served as Interim Chair, Vice Chair, chair of Governance, member of RemCo, and chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. Shefaly is a member of the Enterprise Committee and mentor at Shott Accelerator at the Royal Academy of Engineering. Also a board mentor to CEOs of listed and private companies with Critical Eye and a trusted adviser to FTSE ExCos and boards on emerging technologies, geopolitics, and talent. Formally trained in engineering, management, and technology policy with a PhD in decision-making from the University of Cambridge. Shefaly is a FTSE 100 Women to Watch 2016.

Portfolio: Harmony Energy Investment Trust; Witan Investment Trust plc; JP Morgan US Smaller Companies Trust plc; Temple Bar Investment Trust plc.

Lisa Grufferty

Lisa is a board advisor, UK Board Apprentice, and accomplished commercially astute Director with nearly three decades of experience fostering major infrastructure delivery through best-in-class governance including UK’s Government and FTSE 100 companies. Lisa provides strategic oversight and transformational leadership to optimise organisational growth overcome regulatory obstacles and mitigate risks. Lisa brings a holistic perspective, complementing her depth and breadth of executive programme management expertise, and adds commercial value and flexibility to her approach.

Portfolio: UK Sports Institute (selected for the UK Government’s Board Apprentice program).

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About Us

Meet our Founders

& the InfraNEDs Steering Group

Join us and let's make an impact together!

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